THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2008

My parent’s 26th wedding anniversary.

The 2nd of the important dates I was “missing” due to WYD. I had emailed them just before things go really busy to wish them a happy day and to assure them I would be praying for them, which was special because it would be in the presence of the Holy Father. And maybe a few hundred thousand other people from around the world.

This was the day Pope Benedict XVI was to arrive in Sydney, officially welcomed by the many pilgrims from every land and nation who had also, not long before, flown Down Under. The truth is that our dear Pontiff had arrived 4 days earlier but had taken that time to go on a personal retreat, preparing himself for what was to come. After all, the poor man is 81 and should be long retired! Instead he is leading the one of the world’s largest organizations and is regarded by over 1 billion people as the most important man on Earth. He’s got quite a heavy job for a man of 81 years!

After a chaotic catechesis session, one that ended with a river of tears, we made our way into the city on the train, a ride which I slept almost the entire way through. I just absolutely conked out! But I had to wake up quick because as we pulled into our stop just off Sydney Harbor, we were engulfed with pilgrims who completely filled the streets - all making their way to Barangaroo to welcome our leader, the Vicar of Christ. It took us quite some time to make our way over to the gates of the site, and since Cecilia, Rachel and I had been given VIP tickets, we had to make our way to the opposite side of Barangaroo to go through that gate. That was not an easy task.

Now just briefly, I’ll explain that having VIP tickets meant little more than receiving a chair to sit in (one of the thousands of white plastic chairs) and on the chair, at every single major event, there was always a green bag with the WYD logo on it containing a muesli (granola) bar, a bottle of water, and a clear plastic poncho. Every time. It wasn’t quite so exciting by the end of it.

So, back to the inconvenient feat of getting to “Gate 20”, the VIP gate. For this particular event it was in our advantage to be in that section because it was right on the water, and the Pope arrives by boat. So in and out of the other gates we went, hoping to find some sort of short cut, only to be turned around by a volunteer and pointed in some other direction. It took us FOREVER to get around to the right place, and by the time we did that, they were already unloading the boat….God watched out for us though, because late as we were, we arrived, perfectly positioned and timed to see the Pope get off the boat, and with my dinky little digital camera, I actually got some very good pictures of Pope Benedict! He gave us a wonderful greeting and we prayed with our dear Papa before he was whisked into the Pope-mobile through the streets of Sydney. I think at one point he was traveling at 60mph! It looked quite speedy on the screen.

We filed out of the venue on our way to Darling Harbor, hoping to grab a bit of the pilgrim food they had prepared for us, and maybe see a few things like the Vocations Expo. Just after we began moving towards the exit, a few Sisters of Life came walking past, and would you believe that one of them was the very Sister I had met at the March for Life in Washington DC in January! The only difference, a slight one, was that she had changed her name and the clothes she was wearing - just a month before WYD her postulant class took their habits! I was so delighted to see her, Sister Mary Theotokos, and in such a new light, in a new place. And of all God’s providence, to run into her randomly just after the Holy Father had arrived! Much to my astonishment, she remembered me as well as I remembered her, and I knew that it was our prayers that had kept each other united - she had told me with great sincerity she would pray for me, and I certainly meant it when I said I would pray for her as well on that cold January day. It was so exciting! She’s a beautiful nun - I can’t wait to see what God does through her gift of self to Him!

Now, I should mention a few things. One is that I was pleasantly surprised to find that part of the pilgrim lunch (every day) was a little package of Tim Tam fingers. Tim Tams are absolutely wonderful chocolate biscuits (cookies) which are not found anywhere else in the world, and my family knows how delicious they are because I brought a few packages home last year. Yes, they’re so good I sacrificed precious room and weight in my suitcases to export them to the US. Also part of the pilgrim lunch, but not quite as tasty (a close second, I’d say) were packages of Lamington’s, which are delightful squares of moist white cake, usually two layers with chocolate or vanilla icing in between, and coated with a chocolate, sort of thin coating and then covered in coconut. They’re really nice, actually, and there was a famous picture later in the paper of a nun just sinking her teeth into one - divine. At least they weren’t trying to force Vegemite on anyone. People would never return!

Also, to explain the process (because you may be wondering how it is one goes about feeding such a large number of people), pilgrims were to gather themselves in groups of six, and collect from each member of the group the meal ticket for the particular day and time at which they were eating, so lunch or dinner. The reason for this is that when the one person with six tickets got to the front of the line for food, he or she was given two bags, each containing six of the contents of the meal in them - It was actually quite efficient, really! I never had to wait very long for a meal at all.

As we made our way through Darling Harbor in quest of this pilgrim meal, we came across a few familiar faces, one of them being Sr. Mary Rachel. She is one of the three Dominican Sisters from Nashville who was working for WYD all year, and especially in my times of homesickness and confusion, she had been a very good friend. Always a bundle of joy and energy, and usually with a few funny phrases up her sleeve, it was wonderful to come upon her that day! We were even graced with her presence for our evening meal, and she then accompanied us into the Vocations Expo, where we were separated - it was quite busy in there!

And so you are probably wondering WHAT the Vocations Expo is. Well, at this particular WYD and at only one other before (in Toronto) they held a large exhibit in the convention center consisting of rows and rows of booths, set up by quite a few of the religious orders from all over the world, each one passing out materials on their congregation and displaying much of the information any curious discerner could ask for. Essentially, it was a place for all those young adults searching for life’s calling - could it be the Augustinians, or maybe the Missionaries of God’s Love? What about the Dominicans or the Sisters of Life? Maybe the Missionaries of Charity, or the Little Sisters of the Poor? If I’m called to marriage, what is Theology of the Body? How does Natural Family Planning work? If I’m remembering the numbers correctly, each hour 5,000 people came in and out of the Vocations Expo, said the Vocations director of the Archdiocese of Sydney, who obviously helped coordinate and run the site. It was a huge success and was one of my highlights of WYD! And that wasn’t just because each booth loaded up passers-by with nothing short of a small bag of goodies to take home. One booth had a cappuccino machine! Pretty good way to advertise ;)

On that Thursday night I actually spent a few hours in there, and that was only in one spot. I talked with a few seminarians from the US for quite a while, just about life in general, and their take on everything from WYD so far, to Sydney, to being in the seminary, to what it means to answer God’s call. We even prayed together (imagine that!). Conveniently across from the US Diocesan priests booth was the Dominican’s from Nashville, and since a few of them have been her just as long as I have, with many more coming in for WYD, I knew a few of the ladies there, so I spoke with them for a while, just chatting about the week so far, really. And then I kept running into people I knew who were walking through that area, so it wasn’t very easy to get away!

I did manage to sneak down to the one end of the expo though, because there was set up a “Coffee House” and throughout the week there were performances and interviews that took place on the stage. The time I managed to make my way there was during an interview with Sr. Bethany Madonna, a Sister of Life who, like my friend Sr. Mary Theotokos had just been given her habit and new name. It was really beautiful hearing her story, and then meeting her afterwards (she was good friends with the seminarian I have been talking to). So many interesting people I met in the span of a few hours, and all American! The place was teeming with the good people of the USA, and I was quite happy about that! I tried to soak it up because I knew that within a week they would all be gone, snuggled back into their corner of the Land of the Free, at which time I would have to resign once more to the Aussie traditions. It was glorious because for one week, I could shout that I was American from the rooftops without anyone thinking that was strange, or a novelty, or being annoyed with my patriotism. There were thousands of others just like me!!

Once more we made our way home, and to tell you the truth, this the part of the day I remembered least, probably because I was so tired by that point. Arriving at home and settling into bed, I prayed for the strength to get through one more catechesis session, quite happy that the next day would bring an end to all that stress.